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How Do We Make Choices: Free Will Or Hardwired Brain?
By
Bonnie Collins |
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How many times have you thoughtfully, and perhaps painstakingly, made a decision, and then doubted it? Decisions are often made without much clarity. Sometimes this occurs even with moral ones where some say the choice should be easy. If there are many roads, what influences the path you take?
Laurence Tancredi in his book, Hardwired Behavior: What Newroscience Reveals about Morality, brought me face to face with: "What is it to choose?" a question I sometimes ask those whom I coach. Or, "What does it mean to have and to exercise free will?" Tancredi, clinical professor of Psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, indicates that we may not have as much free will as we think. Biological determinism--in which behavior is explained as having evolved from our adaptaiton to solving human problems--has been around since Darwin. It is almost as if we have an internal microchip updating our choices. Neuroscience affirms that in large measure, our brains are hardwired.
Tancredi cites case studies of how abused children were influenced--their brains rewired--through their tremendous felt loss of personal power. He makes a case that human thinking can be blunted by repeated abuse, which rewires the way neurons are grouped in the brain. He implies that this hardwiring is what mainly drives our behavior, and he downplays the influence of free will.
While biological determinism can influence the degree of responsibility we have for our moral actions, another author, John J. Ratey, M.D. clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Mendical School and author of A User's Guide To The Brain, has another perspective. Ratey calls the brain "the most complex object in the universe." He writes, "The number of different electrochemical configurations in the brain is ten to the trillionth power--an unimagineably large number. The brain is changing its connective patterns every second with everything we think and do. This dynamic is actually the solution tofears that our nature is hardwired. The brain is far more plastic (as neurons die, new ones are eventually regenerated) than we presently know,or perhaps can know.
According to the literture, Science has not yet been able to prove where our "mind" exists. Am I my thoughts? Who is the "I" who is observing me? If we adhere to Tancredi's argument, should we just dismiss telepathy and extra sensory perception? Or,if we accept these ghostly quanta, then what are they, and where do they reside? Moreover, where do they fit into the hardwiring,and in our decision making?
What of "Entanglement", the phenomenon discovered by Albert Einstein, wherein quantum particles that are separated by great distances remain "spookily connected? This was almost too strange for even Einstein to believe.
I too have been a skeptic of telepathy, and entanglement of our minds. But I have become a believer over may years, having witnessed a psychic medium produce highly specific facts from my life. Various highly credible books in major diciplines including in Spirituality and Science, have also illuninated my path. For example, A Change of Heart by Clair Sylvia, shows that we do not just think with our brains, but that our cells also have powerful memories. Sylvia's book provides evidence that transplant recipients take on the personality traits of their organ donors. This remarkable information upholds the unity that our collective minds engender that links us to something far greater than our senses reveal.
It is my belief that we live in only a small part of consciousness. Let us step out of our hardwired less-conscious thinking to discover more, and to be more present with our choices right now! What if you were to become all that you beleive you could be? Believe and be open--there is much more to discover and to receive! Albert Einstein said,"Nature shows us only the tail of the lion, but I have no doubt that the lion belongs with it, even if he cannot reveal himself all at once."
Author's Bio
Bonnie Collins is the Principal of Life Refocused Coaching located in Harrisburg, PA. She has worked previously in Mental Health Services; Vocational Rehabilitation Counseling, and in Policy Mangement for Pennsylvania State Government. Visit her website: www.liferefocused.com
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